Played on Medium. 70+ hours first play through.
Greetings Gamers! I cannot fib, I have been putting off writing this review for a week now and I came to the realization as to why. Its like being in a seriously dedicated relationship and your partner is an absolutely amazing artist of the highest order, then they make an absolute pile that can likened to a homeless man’s shit in a nice ally of historic waterfront district. Ghost of Yotei does very little to hold up to its old sibling Ghost of Tsushima and for those of you that can read between the lines and look past the pretty painting, will see what I am talking about as this review goes on, but lets stop putting this off and peel this band aid away.
Now don’t get me wrong Gamers, there are some aspects of the Ghost of Yotei that really sang with me and in away added to the heartbreak I feel now. At its roots Ghost of Yotei is a classic Western revenge story and I do love me a good Western, there was familiar beautiful scenery that in itself was new, and finally its set during the early year of the Edo period. This is where I draw a blank Gamers because everything else that I enjoy about the game is in Tsushima as well, making it hard for me to really give this game any real praise.
As we get down to brass tacks, I am going to instantly address the spoiler filled elephant in the room and then bitch about actors, bad role designs, and bad writing that all stems from the big issue I am about to address. It is my honest option that the original story for the game was supposed to be more about Jin Sakai and with the game nearly completed, a corporate board decided to scrap the project for something else. My reasoning and evidence for this is in the game itself as one of the many lack luster and poorly preformed legend stories that the main character Atsu discovers along the way, as we saw with the first game and Jin’s encounters with a storyteller. However, this legend tells the very depressing ending of Jin Sakai and alluding to the fact he died by ritual suicide. Atsu climbs and cuts her way to a beautiful glade that looks like the reed fields of Tsushima. Now being called the first Shinobi, Jin’s struggle is refreshed with a series of brief painful reminders that Jin felt in the first game, such as deaths of Taka and horse, saying goodbye to Yuna and possible life together, and being chased from the very home he sacrificed everything to protect. Atsu also discovers a death poem which were written before battle when a warrior would face death and when ritual suicide was preformed to mark the feelings of the person about to die. All the while Atsu comments about the pain and sadness felt around her. Never explaining how or who constructed his grave that Atsu finds at the end of the tale, but leaving you with a feeling that this was heart felt memorial to the story line they wanted to see to the end, with the sadness they felt from the sudden money driven choices made. This legend ends with Atsu learning The Heavenly Strike (which is absolutely worthless in game.), finding the wearable broken helmet of clan Sakai, clan Sakai sword kit, and the Ghost mask.
It was at this point in the game that I knew why I wasn’t liking the game and then all the little details feel into place for me, and I will bring this all to an end after I discuss the other points of the game that I didn’t like and how the various broken points all support my theory. Lets bust down this story line Gamers and yeah there is going to be lots of spoilers here, sorry. Ghost of Yotei tells the story of Atsu a rough and tumble woman, Hell bent on revenge for the slay of her family, which we all got from the game trailer. Atsu faces some plot driven twist and turns along the way that massively detracts from the sense of agency given to the player in the beginnings of the game. Most of which is done by forced player deaths in fights and unbalanced dual mechanics that lead to full health removing one hit kills to force the story line point. The story gives little background on Atsu’s growing with a less than 2 min animation that she was mistreated on the streets of Osaka and became a peasant solider; this is a massive hallmark of a hastily written character and a bad story. Atsu then promptly dies during her first duel with a member of the Yotei 6, The Snake, but comes back to life somehow and rides off with a stomach wound that took real Sir Baldwin of the first crusade two years to heal from. Now I know that some of you will argue that Jin died… no he didn’t. The story writers actually put it into the plot summary of the game that she does die where Jin is only seriously wounded, which in support to Jin who was wearing armor and took arrows to the upper back and those wounds while serious he did survive after time passing, which could have very easily been a few weeks. In Atsu’s case being pinned to the ground by a katana being forced through your midsection wearing only cloth and a straw hat doesn’t make for convincing argument other than “plot magic” which is what happens when A-list films get B-list sequels. Atsu than continues her hunt to discover that her twin brother Jubei is a Samurai Lord, and Atsu seems to have no issue with this.
Why would she have an issue with him being Samurai you ask? Because she was a peasant mercenary, also a woman. Those were three things that the rising Shogunate of the Edo period hated with a fruitful passion and are even things hint at regular in the game by NPC’s, but what’s 25 years of distance and life experiences. Wrong, a woman like Atsu would not only hate Samurai because they would treat her less than human, but a woman like Atsu very well had fallen victim to Samurai and their ability to be above the law as the game eludes numerous times. but he is OK, because he has daughter of his own that is always running around unattended and his given the run of a military base level castle! Wrong Again! Jubei is a Samurai Lord which means he is a Duke or State Senator level power figure, his daughter wouldn’t be walking anywhere let alone wondering about a castle during war time. She would be found surrounded by attendants, tutors, guards, and would be dressed like a doll making tiny little steps a third of a man’s steps, because that was the standard the Shogunate was establishing and would have offered a strong contrast to the strength it take for Atsu to be herself. Topping it all off with the fact its quickly glazed over that Jubei lived a life of privilege because he was boy and lost time has given him the right to lecture Atsu constantly about her way of life and quest for revenge. This is just a sad stab at giving players an emotional connection to something “greater than ourselves” as we saw with Jin’s struggle at the world of his uncle and the world he was fighting butting heads. Which isn’t the case with Atsu as she lectured constantly and accepts the forced lessons her brother pushes on her.
As we move past this horridly written stage and on to another that makes absolutely no sense in any “just OK’ story line and hammered home here with a fist of “they could be lovers.” added for the sad little basement dwellers, Oyuki. Atsu revenge story takes her to the path of Oyuki, Shinobi and Spy Master that agrees to help Atsu on her path of revenge, which story line reveals that Oyuki was a member of the Yotei 6 and wore the mask of The Kitsune the night her family was murdered. Through a serious of extremely convoluted cut-scenes that Oyuki was “misguided” and was later “trying to help.” thus, creating a sloppy “forgive me story” that even a 3rd graded would be disappointed with, which is accepted by Atsu under the label of “Sharing a woman’s pain.” and they are now roommates that will raise a child together. Wrong Again! No one and I mean no one would accept the reasoning Oyuki offers to be spared, she was a party to murder, making Atsu suffer and struggle for her entire life, and as Atsu eludes multiple times in dialogue that she was assaulted as well, all because of Oyuki as a member of the Yotei 6. Oyuki’s head would have come off faster than the sake bottle cork to celebrate after. This leaves the player with this feeling that actions don’t really matter and “we are all victims.” as the story line takes the ever more plots driven on the rails trip of bad writing as the game brings the player to the ending phases of the game. Atsu lectures Jubei into forgiving Oyuki and they all skip happy to the magically unravaged by war temple monastery and get a child drunk, the morning before the final battles will take place. It’s during the next series of needlessly running back and forth, being knocked out to force move along plot lines and starts to take a turn towards “the writers wanted this to fail.”, Atsu confronts the oldest son, “The Dragon.” of the main bad guy, Lord Shito and defeats him in combat but results in the fall of Jubei’s Samurai castle and the capture of Jubei and Oyuki at the hands of Lord Shito. But slightly scores herself a tiny victory because “The Spider.”, Lord Shito’s youngest son is disowned and exiled by his father, now the story takes an even more ridiculous twist as “The Spider.” is convinced and then spared by Atsu to betray his father and help Atsu locate Lord Shito to save her new Disney family. Which “The Spider” oddly agrees to and is left to just wonder Japan, again telling the player that its OK to to be a child murderer, rapist, or drunken warmonger, but your Daddy was mean to you, so that gives you a pass.
The game finally ends with another forced plot point ending that is just baffling to say the least, very much trying to mimic the emotional strife of the first game where Jin is forced to duel is Uncle. Atsu learns after freeing Oyuki and Jubei that Lord Shito has traveled back to the family home where Atsu hid her niece to draw her out. Despite already having done that by capturing the Disney forgiveness family and they all must ride like the pony express to get home, to find Lord Shito. Jubei’s daughter is released under the condition that everyone else has to leave, so Shito and Atsu can duel. It is agreed upon and the duel begins, after having to defeat Shito twice, the game will force the player into last stand, at which point Jubei will magically appear to save Atsu and then be killed by Shito, giving his last little Disney forgiveness lesson to Atsu, to duel Shito a third time and the game ends with Atsu having told all of this to her niece as if it was a story, despite the fact she watches her father die. The family farm fully restored for Atsu and Oyuki to be roommates and raise the niece.
This is by far one of the most rushed story lines that I can think of and it’s clear that story line was being used to make up for another project scrapped before it was completed, not to mention that when the player looks at Atsu’s body build in the cut-scenes and she appears as a woman wearing armor, but in gameplay the body build is of a man in armor. Clear visible differences, pair this my next biggest complaint and that’s the casting of Noshir Dalal as Jubei and letting him sound exactly like his character from EA’s Jedi Survivor and not giving him a dialogue coach to help keep his acting on point, half the time he sounds like he is trying to be a bad western troupe of an Asian voice. Which tells me that no love or passion was placed in this game like we saw with Tsushima.
Now you can argue with me all day long that it is hard to write sequels to great storylines and there is a strong chance that maybe there was a Jin storyline that couldn’t be flushed out well, but this sugar sweet story with sword play and fancy colors is just bunk to keep short sighted memories aware that Sucker Punch is a studio name. The game has its fair share of lazy thrown into as well which backs up my belief that this was a money grab, instead of offering us anything of substance the players are given fairly uses new weapons that replace the sword stances of the first game, which force the player to constantly need to swap weapons during a battle. Which makes the perks added to the armor of the game fairly worthless and makes the charms a must use to make any of the combat remotely enjoyable on a difficulty higher than easy. The need to add disarming to the game makes no sense as it just another forced game point to make player use in game skills or weapons they make not like, as is seen in the many cases where Atsu is suddenly killed by the most basic bandit just so the game can have the useless wolf in the game as something to rely on. Even forcing its way into the game with standoffs with the wolf helping and constant reminder that the player should play the song to use the wolf in the game for assassinations, the game is trying to have the character of Atsu be the mythical force that drives fear into the hearts of the enemy and a be a story of the people, but take it all away with this “I just wanna be loved.” subplot going.
The game it self featured many bugs and since completing the game I have seen that it has been updated three times, making it needing a total of five updates since its release. Which also tells me that they did not properly beta test the game as it was a “Corpo” money grab, I myself had to restart both the Oni and Kitsune boss fights because of a glitch. I had disarmed both to the point they had only their fist and attacks I made after that point would not remove any health, forcing me to restart from check point and having to start the fight anew. The addition to gambling being a function in the game is another reason why I rate this game as lowly as I am, its not gambling at all, it doesn’t offer a system of chance must as gambling does, as the game does not offer any form of indication to how hard you are flicking the coins. Meaning the game determines the outcome taking away the agency of the player in the process and is just a means for the game to force an outcome so the player will constantly have to grind in attempt to completely claim all the charms in the game while also using it as a point to force the player to spend large sums of earned coin. Even to going as far as pointing out the function itself is rigged in a bounty mission where Atsu most confront a known gambler who cheats and even after swapping out the gambler coins for a non-rigged set he will still run the table if the player misses a single shot.
As I wrap this review up and say with a long loving deep look into the eyes of Sucker Punch, “Sweetheart, you know its shit and so do, have a drink and don’t rush next time.” Ghost of Yotei broke my heart as it had so much promise and some much potential to build in a direction where new players and returning players could have that same feeling after playing Ghost of Tsushima. Sucker Punch played on the love of the first game and built a very successful hype campaign to hide the choice they made to go another direction. Ghost of Yotei is a 4/10 for me and won’t even rate on my game of the year list unless somehow the next Outer Worlds game is worse than this. After a disappointing sequel to one of the best games in the last 20 years, this is leading to a bad break with Sucker Punch!
